Chronux

Chapter 5 - "The Coup De Grace"

-~-~ Fabia ~-~-

The next few days passed much in the same matter. We took blue and black by surprise, brown and gold fell of other groups. That left four more groups, including us, silver, red, and pink. Tensions were high. We fended off black twice, luckily our whole group had been there, otherwise we would have already been out. Everything seemed to be going fine. Until the fourth day.

The "sun" rose just above the tree tops, illuminating the forest floor, almost as if it were real. One of the only things of beauty I've seen in my life. Sadly, I hadn't much time to ponder on the beauty of the sunrise. It was the end of my watch, just about 0500, and I was dead tired. Between the three raid attempts and the watch last night, I could barely stay up. I walked towards our camp, tapping Ari as I passed her sleeping form. It took a second for her to wake up. I waited patiently.

"You look beat," she sat up.

"Thanks Ar. Real helpful,"I said yawning,"Watch the bushes to the south. Saw some movement from the direction of the blue camp," I said, rubbing my eyes just a little.

"Alright,"Ari rushed her words,"Now go get some sleep before you pass out."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm going," I mumbled, already walking towards my makeshift bed. I was not going to deny that offer.

-~-~ Ari ~-~-

"Get some sleep!" I half yelled towards Fabia as the blue of her hair disappeared around the corner. Sometimes she's too much. Constantly tiring herself out training, I don't know how she does it.

Unlike Fabia, I'm usually well rested. I feel like I can focus better when I do.

I walked slowly towards the position Fabia was watching before. I grabbed a bit more ammo on my way there. I slept with all my gear so I was mostly alright in the way or ammo, though. I watch the horizons and trees until about 1300, and everything seemed quiet. Almost too quiet. Out plan was to just sit tight, wait for the others would juke it out, and come in to finish off the last of them. Something I liked to call: The Coup De Grace.

So I had some time to kill. These other groups were here for a reason. They had survived this long, they weren't going down that easily. I focused on scanning around for a couple more minutes, but my mind couldn't help wandering. It went from one thought to another, the usuals: parentage, origin, everything of the sort. For hours I stayed in self-absorption.

-~-~-~-

I was snapped out of my daydreaming upon hearing a large, mechanical boom, and the simulator seemed to shut down. Everything turned to the default plain, white, gridded walls of the simulator. As the simulator went, so did the control of our weapons, automatically switching the safety on. I saw the members of our squad who had been slumbering(including Fabia) jump up due to the disappearance of the floor beneath them.

"Please report to your barracks for briefing," the announcement came seconds before the opening of the doors that lead back into the barracks.

I turned to Fabia as we walked through the door.

"What is going on?" She sounded startled and still a little tired. I heard a couple others ask similar questions.

"I'm not sure," I spoke with complete honesty. I had no idea what was happening.